Operating temp/ guage

BKOMAR · BKOMAR's Garage

I am preparing to go to a DE in KC this weekend and I was talking with my buddy...and we got to talking about cooling and operating temps. I mentioned that my needle barely gets into the operating range. The needle gets just above the bottom line. He seemed to think that this was not a good thing. It got me to thinking and I wanted to ask.... Where does you guys' guages read and is it bad to run the engine cool? My 914 seems to run hot and creep up towards the red esp. on the track. When I REALLY push my 911 the guage comes up just a tad...like ~ 2-3mm above the line. I am going to look for someone with a pyrometer this weekend to give me a better idea of where I am running temp wise. Any thoughts or comments? Thanks, Brian

Formerly Steve Wilkinson · 05-06-2002, 08:16 AM

Mine (modified '83SC with an external 28-tube oil cooler) gets up to 180 after about 20 minutes of normal driving in 60-degree weather--my gauge (it's not a guage...) has temp markings, but if yours is unmarked, that's probably about 5mm off the peg. Today it's about 75 and it went to about 2mm above the 180 mark, gentle errands-around-town driving. On the track on an ordinary spring day, maybe 65 out, it'll go to about halfway up the gauge, around 250.

If you have an external oil cooler, you'll know your gauge is wrong if the pipes forward of the thermostat in the right rear wheelwell are hot. At the temps you're indicating, if they're accurate, the thermostat won't open.

Stephan

Chuck Moreland · 05-06-2002, 08:21 AM

Running cold is a bad thing. Just like running too hot increases engine wear, so does running cold.

It's hard to imagine a 911 with stock cooling setup not coming up to temp when running hard.

I'd suspect something is amiss with your gauge/sending unit. The sending unit could be bad, or perhaps some PO replaced the sender or gauge and used the wrong part. They need to be matched.

Your plan sounds good, get a IR thermometer and measure the temp on the oil tank and metal oil lines.

If your tracking your car you really need to know the oil temp. If you have the stock oil cooling system you can bet it will get too hot on track in summer heat.